


Snowed In(drid)

by spice_ghouls



Category: The Adventure Zone (Podcast)
Genre: First Kiss, M/M, Snowed In, forgive me father for i am back on my bullshit, oh no my hand slipped and I accidentally wrote a whole fuckin indruck oneshot, trigger warning for graphic description of a car crash, w h o o p s
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-13
Updated: 2018-12-13
Packaged: 2019-09-17 19:11:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,945
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16980186
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/spice_ghouls/pseuds/spice_ghouls
Summary: Duck goes over to Indrid's place as a snowstorm is beginning to fall to return his glasses. Takes place a few days after the events of episode 19.





	Snowed In(drid)

**Author's Note:**

> thank you to tumblr user @duck-duck-juice for dragging me into Indruck hell through their posts, this one's for you. ;3

It was Aubrey who reminded him of it, a few days after the dust had finally settled from the fallout of the goatman-tree abomination they had faced. They were sitting in the lobby of Amnesty lodge, and Barclay had just finished regaling them with the story of the first time he'd ever faced an abomination. 

"...and then," Barclay got out in between fits of laughter, "after the whole thing was over, Mama found me hiding behind the outhouse, knees quaking, and blind as a bat after the elemental had broken my glasses! After that, I switched to contacts, and Mama waited a while before letting me try to fight anything like that again."

Duck finished his sip of tea. "Sounds like quite the mess. But if it makes you feel any better, there's no way we weren' scared even more shitless than that the first time we saw an abomination."

Aubrey's brows furrowed. "Hey Duck, uh, speaking of glasses, did you ever give the mothman his glasses back? I mean, not that I'd protest if you've changed your mind and decided to let me bring them to Sylvain..." she trailed off with a grin, only half joking.

"Ah, shit - yeah, I've been meanin' to do that. I think Mama still has them upstairs, I can go grab them and drive them over now. I hope he's at his trailer," Duck said.

"Yeah, he probably is," Barclay responded, "but are you sure you wanna drive out there in this weather? The sun'll set soon, and it's lookin' like it's gonna snow."

Duck shrugged. "I might as well. I don't like the thought of him sittin' out there in his mothed-up form in full view of the windows, particularly not with our ol' pal Stern pokin' his nose everywhere in this town. Sooner or later, someone's gonna take too close of a look at the trailer and see him, and then we're all fucked." He didn't mention it at the time, but the thought of Indrid having to sit out there all alone, cooped up in his moth form and unable to leave the trailer for fear of being spotted - well, it just didn't sit right with him for some reason.

He glanced out the window and wrinkled his nose. "Plus. I've driven through worse. I'm a damn forest ranger, for pete's sake."

Barclay nodded, still looking hesitant. "Okay. But ask Mama if you can take her truck, will you? It probably handles better in bad weather than your car."

Duck gave him a mock-salute, and walked to Mama's office to retrieve Indrid's glasses from where he'd left them. Mama was sitting in her chair, her desk strewn with files and papers as usual. 

"Hey Mama, can I borrow the keys to the truck? I'm gonna drive over to Indrid's place to give him his glasses back, and Barclay was sayin' it'd handle the weather better."

Mama nodded, glancing up from her work. "Sure, just be careful." She fished through her junk-littered desk drawer for a moment before retrieving the keys and tossing them to Duck, who caught them handily.

"Drive safely!" she called after him as he walked out of her office and through the lobby. 

"Be back soon," he yelled over his shoulder to Aubrey and Barclay as he stepped out the front door. 

The wind hit him immediately - Barclay had been right about how cold it was out. But he pulled his ranger's jacket tighter around his body and made his way over around to the side of the lodge where Mama parked her truck. It took two tries, but the engine sputtered to life, and he pulled the vehicle out and down the road. 

He thought while he drove. He hoped Indrid was okay. If he wasn't, it'd be Duck's own damn fault for not remembering to get his glasses back to him soon enough. The thought made his chest tighten, and he pushed the gas pedal down a little harder. 

As the truck made its way down the winding roads toward Indrid's Winnebago, snowflakes began fluttering down onto the town of Kepler - slowly, gently at first, but then in flurries, landing on Mama's truck in clumps of white flakes that sloughed off onto the ground after melting or being pushed off by the windshield wipers. Duck was finding it increasingly hard to drive, especially as the sun was slinking beneath the horizon and rapidly withdrawing the remaining daylight. 

Just as Duck was beginning to worry that he wouldn't be able to make it - _should have listened to Barclay_ , he thought - the headlights illuminated the white exterior of a familiar camper, and he heaved a sigh of relief. Tucking the keys to the car and Indrid's glasses in his breast pocket, he stepped out onto a powdery layer of snow that was already beginning to pile up. 

Before he could even take two steps towards the front door, though, it swung outward, just enough for a hand - a hand with impossibly long fingers, a hand covered in downy black fur - to reach out, palm up, expectant. _Right. Future sight. He saw me coming._

Duck half jogged up to the door before fumbling to retrieve the glasses and placing them in the open palm of the Sylvan's hand. The long fingers closed around the spectacles and retreated for a moment. 

Then, the door swung all the way open, revealing the newly human form of Indrid Cold, who flinched at the gust of frigid air that hit him from the open door, but then smiled. "Duck Newton! Always a pleasure. I appreciate the safe return of my disguise. Won't you come in?"

Duck nodded, happy to get out of the cold for a moment, and stepped in, closing the door behind him.

The interior of the Winnebago was much as he remembered from his prior visit with Ned and Aubrey, though Indrid did seem to have cleaned up somewhat while in his moth form - _maybe he saw me coming in enough futures that it inspired him to tidy up for company_ , Duck thought. Though, on the other hand, maybe he was imagining things. He hadn't bothered to clean up when it was all three of them visiting - surely he wouldn't have cleaned the place up just for Duck. There was nothing special about him, after all.

Indrid shoved aside a stack of scribbled drawings resting on the cushion, and offered Duck a seat on his sofa. "Eggnog?" he asked, grabbing an empty solo cup from a cupboard and a carton from his mini-fridge. 

"Don't you already know -" 

"whether or not I want some?" Indrid finished at the same time as Duck. "No - you still have a choice, there are some futures in which you decide to have eggnog, and some in which you don't."

"Which, uh - which futures are there -"

"More of?" Indrid finished with him. "There appear to be more in which you do not want eggnog. Though me saying that actually increases the number of futures in which you want eggnog, probably because you seem to have a predisposition towards defying your fate when you are able."

Hm. Duck paused, trying to ignore the philosophical implications of that. If he thought too hard about free will, it made his head hurt. "In that case - I guess I'll have some eggnog." 

Indrid smiled, and poured him some, pushing a stark-white strand of hair out of his eyes as he did so. _He's really cute_ , Duck thought, and then regretted it - fuck, he hoped there hadn't been a future where he'd said that out loud by mistake. If there had been, though, Indrid didn't show it as he handed Duck the cup. Duck sent up a silent prayer to any god that might be listening that he wasn't blushing. 

"Thanks," he said at the same time as Indrid. 

Indrid sat down on the opposite end of the couch from Duck, and swung his legs up so he was turned to face him and sitting with his legs crossed. 

"So, I - I wanted to thank you," Indrid said, "for saving me back at that tree with the goatmen. I saw what happened to your sword, and I'm terribly sorry. I was so focused on watching Kepler's future that I neglected looking at my own."

Duck looked up from his eggnog. "Nah, it's okay. You can't beat yourself up over that kind of shit, it wasn't your fault, and Beacon'll be just fine - that is, if I don't get fed up with him talkin' constantly and decide to chuck him into a frozen lake - but that's neither here nor there. Don't blame yourself."

Indrid nodded. "I still appreciate it. You didn't have to do that for me."

Duck waved him off. "Aw, don't mention it. You've saved us a couple of times now, so I'd say we're -" "pretty even," Indrid said at the same time as Duck.

Indrid smiled, and there was a moment of silence where Indrid was just staring at him as if he was looking for something in particular. The intensity of his gaze was more than Duck could handle. 

"Well," Duck said, "I should probably be headin' out - this weather sure isn't gonna get any easier to drive through."

"Right, right," Indrid replied, standing up abruptly as if Duck's words had shaken him out of a trance. "Well. Drive safely." 

Duck nodded, and drained the rest of his eggnog before setting his empty cup down on the tiny end table. "See ya," he said as he opened the door of the trailer. Indrid waved goodbye as he closed the door behind him.

Duck's hiking boots crunched with every footstep as he made his way through the snow back to Mama's truck. He settled down in the driver's seat and put the keys in the ignition, taking a second to turn the windshield wipers on. He tried to turn the car on, and the engine sputtered. "Shit," he mumbled, and turned the key again. This time, the engine rumbled to life, and Duck breathed a sigh of relief. He had just started backing up to pull onto the main road, when he heard the door to the winnebago slam open behind him. He looked back over his shoulder to see Indrid, still barefoot and in his tank top, sprinting towards him through the snow. 

"STOP," he yelled frantically. "DUCK, DON'T DRIVE OFF."

Duck stopped the truck in its tracks and put it in park, swinging the door open as Indrid collided with him. "Okay, okay, I'm stopped, I - Indrid, it's okay, calm down - what's going on?"

"I - you die," Indrid said urgently, chest heaving. "In a car crash. I saw it, Duck - in almost every future, if you leave right now, you veer off the road and hit a tree and it goes through the windshield and - oh god," Indrid sobbed. "There's so much blood, and it's just like the silver bridge it's all my fault for not stopping it and -" Duck grabbed ahold of Indrid's shoulders. Disturbed though Duck was at having his death foretold in so grisly a manner, Indrid was more important right now, and he was shaking like an aspen leaf in the breeze.

"It's okay, I'm right here, none of that has happened yet, it's alright. Let's go inside, okay? I'm - oh, fuck, you ran out here without a coat, here," Duck took his ranger jacket off and wrapped it around Indrid. "Let's just get you back inside." 

Indrid nodded, still clearly distraught, and they took a few steps toward the Winnebago before Duck realized that Indrid was barefoot. "Indrid, you'll get frostbite like that, hang on, here," Duck said, carefully lifting the man's thin frame off his feet and carrying him bridal-style into the trailer. He set Indrid down gingerly on the couch before turning and shutting the door. Duck grabbed a blanket off the floor and wrapped it around Indrid's shoulders, then sat down next to him. 

Indrid was a wreck. He was shivering, and rocking back and forth as Duck watched, though he looked significantly calmer than he had outside. With a start, Duck realized that he was crying silently.

"Hey, hey, it's okay. Shhhh, it's okay." Duck hesitated, then put his arm around Indrid's narrow shoulders. "Do you wanna talk about what you saw?"

Indrid pulled away and met Duck's eyes. When he spoke, his voice was low and hoarse - which, if the circumstances were less grim, would've had Duck blushing furiously. "You shouldn't have to hear it. It was really bad, Duck."

Duck shook his head. "It's okay, I can -" "handle it," Indrid finished before Duck could even get it out. Indrid sighed.

"Like I said, if you had left just then, there would have been a car crash. I saw you veering off the road - in a hundred different futures, it's the same patch of ice that does you in. Your truck slides off the road. You hit a tree. The branches go through the windshield and - and you're killed. You slam forward and your air bags don't work and - and I could hear you screaming and therewassomuchblood," Indrid said, voice trailing off into a rushed whisper as he tucked his knees up to his chest.

"Oh, Indrid," Duck said, unsure of how to even begin to respond. "Jesus. I'm so sorry you had to see that. But I - god, you just saved my life."

Indrid nodded, but he looked like he was somewhere else, eyes unfocused. He wiped his nose distractedly with one of the drawings sitting on the arm of the sofa next to him. 

Duck sighed. "Look, I don't really - I can't imagine what you're feelin' right now. I've had bad visions before, so I can sort of understand the panic you must have felt, but I've never had one that gory, and now that I think of it it prob'ly was stupid to compare my visions to yours because it's nothing like having to see somethin' like that a hundred times over, but I just - aw, hell. Indrid. I'm okay. You're okay. We're here right now, in this moment - whatever a million futures mighta held, you saved me from dying, and that's worth something. Can you look at me for a second?" 

Indrid did. 

"Do me a favor. This is a trick that Juno does sometimes, cause when we're out'n the forest 'n stressful shit is happenin', she sometimes starts feelin' distant like nothing's real and you've got the same look on your face now as she does then. Can you look around you and tell me five things you can see?"

Indrid glanced around, squinting in he dim light of the trailer. "Eggnog cup. Uh, drawings. You. The space heater. And, uh, the end table," he finished.

"Great. Now, uh, can you find four things you can touch?" Duck continued, hoping he'd remembered correctly what Juno had told him.

The sylvan sighed beside him, letting tension bleed out of his body. "Your jacket, the blanket, the sofa cover, and, uh." He reached down to touch the half-empty cup of eggnog on the floor next to him. "A cup."

"Three things you can hear, now," Duck said, shifting to face Indrid on the couch.

"The wind, the clock ticking, and your voice," Indrid said, making eye contact with Duck as he said the last one.

Duck realized how dangerously close together they were, and pulled back a little, not wanting to make Indrid uncomfortable. Whatever he might... want, now was decidedly not the time. Though the color did appear to have returned to Indrid's face. "Two things you can smell?"

"Eggnog. And, um, pine needles. I think that one's coming from your jacket. Here, I'm warm enough now," Indrid moved to drape the jacket back around Duck's shoulders, trailing his hands down to the hem, but he made no movement to release the corners of the jacket. Duck was absolutely certain he was blushing now. 

Indrid was looking at him intently, the light from the orange glow of the space heater across the room from them reflected in his eyes. The tiny part of Duck's brain that wasn't currently Freaking The Fuck Out remembered the last part of the grounding exercise. 

"One thing you can -" "taste," Indrid finished with him. 

And then he closed the gap between them and kissed Duck.

His lips were fucking freezing, which shouldn't have caught Duck off guard, but did anyway. Duck kissed him back, though, after a moment, and he felt rather than saw Indrid smile as he pulled away. 

"Eggnog," Indrid whispered.

"I - What?" Duck said, baffled, his brain completely short-circuited.

"You," Indrid said with a grin, "taste like eggnog."

Duck laughed. "Ah, shit, why couldn't we have been in one of the timelines where I didn't take the damn eggnog."

Indrid grinned. "Joke's on you. In every possible future and present, I like the taste of eggnog." 

And this time, it was Duck who leaned in to kiss Indrid, bringing his hands up to cup the Mothman's face gently. Indrid’s cold hand brushed over the back of Duck’s neck as they stayed pressed together like that for a moment, kept warm by the space heaters and their shared body heat. Duck pulled away eventually for breath, and Indrid smiled softly ay him.

"It's late. And at this point we're pretty well snowed in. The ice will be melted by morning in almost every possible future, but for now - stay the night here?" Indrid asked, voice barely audible.

Duck nodded.

"And Duck?"

"Yeah?"

"I'm really glad you didn't die," he said, leaning into Duck's chest.

“Me too, Indrid,” Duck mumbled. “Me too.”

**Author's Note:**

> [DABS]  
> Hit me up on tumblr at @spice-ghouls :)
> 
> People whomst leave kind comments are the light of my life


End file.
